Reaching the Summit
by SnowyRefuge
Summary: Rosetta Ruby Stone is a young girl, looking to become the manager of Hoenn's next Cross League Champion Team. But with the mystery surrounding Hilda White's disappearance and the arrival of Team Aqua, things are bound to get a little tricky here and there...
1. Her Hero is a Cross

**Reaching the Summit**

 **By Snowy Snivy**

 **A Pokemon Alpha Sapphire Gijinka Nuzlocke**

 **Prologue**

 **Her Hero Is a Cross**

"As we all know, today is the day that Sinnoh recognizes as National Hero's Day."

A young woman with frazzled brown hair stands at the front of the class room, staring at a spot on the wall opposite her with a tired, almost angry, expression. Just under her brooding gaze were around thirty or so children, all around the age of ten. Some stared at her blankly while a few others doodled something onto their desk. One little boy had made a paper airplane and let it sail all the way across the room to his friend sitting on the other side. A group of girls giggled.

The teacher closed her eyes in frustration, and an eyebrow twitched downwards dangerously.

"And now, as much as I dread your pitiful answers, I am obligated by my contract to this stupid school to have an hour-long discussion with you brats about who _your_ hero is."

She hadn't really said all of this, but, as far as the children were concerned, she might as well have.

Nobody responded to her. The teacher scowled and looked down at the children.

In the middle of the classroom, a girl with an obnoxiously long, pointed nose and lightly colored blonde hair was forcibly scribbling something onto her desk, humming quietly. She had been one of the girls that giggled at the airplane.

This was the first child that the teacher laid eyes on, and so she decided to call her out. "Ms. Stone, how about you?"

The girl paused in her drawing and looked up. "Huh?"

The teacher stared blankly at the girl and jabbed her thumb behind her, pointing to the large white board with the words " _hero's day_ ," scribbled lazily in the corner in black marker. " _Your_ hero, Rosetta."

Rosetta stared blankly for a moment and then blinked. She looked up at the ceiling, thinking. After a moment, she squealed excitedly and burst out with, "Hilda White!"

"Hilda White," the teacher deadpanned. "The cross who was pushing to sap all of the money out of poor Unova through taxes six months ago?"

The girl gasped. "Hilda doesn't want that!" She exclaimed. "Dad says she just wants free healthcare for cross registered in the league!"

"And how do you think she'd have gotten the money for that?" The woman grumbled.

Rosetta paid no mind, however, and reached into her desk, pulling out a hand full of cards with various pictures and names on them. "She's super cool," the girl breathed out. "She's a Serperior, so she has leaves all over her legs, and she's the youngest leader of any cross championship team known, second to only Red from Kanto! She was only seventeen when her team beat the league!" She finally found the card she was looking for and waved it around, the face of a young girl with wild brown hair pulled into a ponytail that puffed out over her pink cap. She stared out from the card with an awkward smile, bright blue eyes betraying the mischievous look she was obviously trying to go for with their bewilderment at having her picture taken for trading cards. "Her team managed to fend off Team Plasma all by itself, and they say that she talked to Reshiram! Isn't that amazing?"

The boy that sat in front of her looked at the card, displeased. "Leafy legs doesn't sound like a very cool mark," he muttered. "And isn't she, like, super short?"

A girl nearby laughed at the comment very loudly.

"Five feet isn't _that_ short!" Rosetta argued, cheeks becoming rosy. "And Reshiram sure didn't seem to think so, either!"

A few boys rolled their heads back in laughter.

Rosetta scowled. "Hilda beat the league in only two years!"

"Red beat it in one, _and_ he kept his position for more than just four months!" Another boy called out.

"Hilda never lost a battle, either." It was a different boy this time, calling out from the back of the classroom. "What happened wasn't her fault!"

"Well," said a girl from the back of the class, "Mama and Papa say that Hilda White's a fraud, and that she never really met Reshiram. They said that she was nothing but a dirty liar, and that she got what was coming to her!"

A few other children broke into an outcry against the statement along with Rosetta.

"That's not true!"

"You can't say that!"

Rosetta stood up from her desk and yelled at the girl. "And _my_ Mom and Dad say that people like _you_ are the reason she's _in_ that coma!"

Even more children opened their mouths in outrage, ready to scream and shout.

"That's enough on the subject!" The teacher snapped. The class instantly quieted.

Their teacher almost never told them to stop anything. She never cared enough.

The teacher turned her gaze onto Rosetta. "I know, Ms. Stone, that your father in a gym leader and manager under the Hoenn Cross and Pokemon League and that your cousin is some sort of hot-shot in the cross community over there, as well." There was a loud rumble of whispers erupting from the class.

 _"_ _Her cousin is a cross?"_

"But I will not tolerate you bringing your family's propaganda into this classroom!"

Rosetta huffed, turning her long and pointed nose upward. "It's not perpoganda!" She didn't even know what the word was, but she didn't like the sound of it.

"It most certainly is," the teacher seethed, "and you'd best keep it out of school. Understood?"

Rosetta glowered, but did not respond.

The teacher scowled back at her. "I'm calling both your and Mr. Caldwell's parents, and they're going to have a long talk with the principal about what they tell you at home."

The other boy who had shouted in Hilda White's defense slumped back in his seat in silence.

Rosetta looked back at the boy and mouthed the words, _"Thanks, and sorry."_

* * *

Around ten minutes later, a paper airplane went sailing and came to a halt at Rosetta's desk. She looked at the thing, saw writing scribbled over its folded pages, and shoved it into her bag to look at later.


	2. A Letter to Big Nose Stone

Big-Nose Stone,

Hilda White is a good-for-nothing loser. Why else would she have gone into that coma and never wake up? My pastor says it's because she did wrong, and Arceus is punishing her. Why else would her beloved Reshiram not protect her when that happened?

You and your dirty cross cousin and your stupid manager dad are all going to the Distortion World for buying her lies, and the only people that are going to miss you are your mom and lovey-dovey Caldwell.

If you love Unova so much, then go there and never come back to Sinnoh!

 _Caroline Jones_

 _Frankie Conner_

 _Patrick Long_

 _Garret Harper_

 _ **Tony Craig**_


	3. Moving to Hoenn

That evening, on the way out of school, Rosetta Ruby Stone was suspended for seeking out Tony Craig, a large young boy, and getting into a fist-fight that she lost completely.

The suspension hardly mattered to Patricia Stone, however, as she had decided to withdraw Rosetta from her school after hearing about what had happened in class. The only thing that had concerned her was the fight.

"Now why would you pick a fight with a boy twice your size?" Patricia asked, scowling at the girl as she gathered an ice pack for her cheek. "You're lucky he didn't break anything."

Rosetta handed her the letter that she had tucked away in her pocket. "That stupid idiot made fun of your nose, so I decided to break his."

Patricia glared down at the girl from over her equally long nose, unamused. "Don't do it again."

Rosetta beamed as she pressed the ice pack to her cheek. "No promises!"

Her mother snorted one more time at the comment, but remained silent for a few moments as she put a band-aid on the young girl's arm. Suddenly, she spoke. "Oh, and Zetta?"

"Yeah, Mom?"

"We're moving to Hoenn with your father."

A smile broke out over Rosetta's bruised face, although it was hard to see over the ice pack on her cheek.


End file.
